Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ELECTROSTATIC POWDER COATING INSTALLATION
BACKGROUN~ OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an electrostatic powder
coating installation with a cabin. In the electrostatic
powder coating, a fine plastic powder is electrostatic-
ally loaded and sprayed. By grounding the object to be
coated, one achieves that the electrically loaded part~
icles of powder will be deposited on the grounded work-
piece. Hence, they form within a short time a thin, uni-
form powder coating. By subsequent heating in a furnace,
the powder melts and produces a resistant coating~ In
general, the spraying process occurs in cabins whereby a
great part of the sprayed powder do not reach the work-
piece and by means of air suction and filtering, the
powder in excess is recuperated and delivered into the
powder circuit. The powder coating has important advant-
ages with respect to the wet lacquer, like great gain ofmaterial because of powder recuperation, no exhalations
nor vapors which is of increasing importance in the
growing the consciousness of the environment, great
thicknesses of the layer in a single operation, shorter
burning times and more resistant quality of the coating.
On the other hand, problems arise in the case of chang-
ing the color, because all elements participating in the
spraying operation like powder tank, feed, spraying gun,
cabin suction and filter must be changed or cleaned in
this case. Up to now, in the known installations such a
color change has been too expensive and uneconomic to be
applied for small and middle series.
SUMM~RY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention
to realize an electrostatic powder coating installation
which renders possible a rapid and economical change of
color and substantial saving of non-coated color. To
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solve this problem, the electrostatic powder coating in-
stallation comprises a cabin with two front sides, each
provided with a passage for the workpieces, whereby the
inner wall of the cabin is made from an electrically
non-conductive material and comprises at the bottom a
collecting channel connected to a suction device.
The invention will be described further by way of
example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 shows a vertical cross section through the
cabin,
5 Figure 2 shows a horizontal cross section through the
cabin,
Figure 3 shows a side view of the cabin of Figure 1, and
Figure 4 shows schematically a powder coating installa-
tion according to the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
. . .
One recognizes in Figure 1 the cabin I comprising
a wall 2 of an electrically non-conductive material,
i.e. plastic. In the present example, the wall comprises
a core 3 of polyurethane foam with a thickness of 100 mm
coated at the inside with a 8 mm thick PVC layer 4 and
at the outside with another plastic coating 5. It is
clear that the thickness of the various coatings may
vary and that other, appropriate materials can be used.
The lower part 6 of the cabin has the form of a V such
that the powder residues can easily reach the channel
connected to it, from which they are sucked off. The
upper edges of the cabin are rounded off such that as
little powder residue as possible remains sticked. The
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cabin is held in a frame which may consist of steel
plate and comprises at the top an opening 9 through
which the carriage with the workpieces or the cleaning
frame, which will be described later, can be introduced.
The channel opening 10 at the bottom forming the transi-
tion between the lower part of the cabin and the col-
lecting channel 7 has no uniform width and is widening
from the front part, where the suck-off pipe 11 is con-
nected, to the back part. This permits achieving a speed10 of suction as uniform as possible from the front part to
the back part. Above the cabin a rail system 12 is pro-
vided, at which either the workpieces or a cleaning de-
vice can be transported and introduced into the cabin.
As indicated above, in order to effect a rapid change-
over o~ the cabin for another color, all elements mustbe exchanged, respectively cleaned, whereby up to now,
the cabin was the most difficult element to clean. A
condition for a rapid cleaning, respectively a carrying
off of the residues of powder is the use of non-conduct-
ive plastics and a lining with an appropriate surface to
which the poweder particles do not stick. In order to
eliminate rapidly the powder residues from the internal
walls of the cabin to the suction channel 7, a cleaning
device 13 is provided which is suspended to a transport-
er or the rail 12 and which can be displaced through the
cabin. The cleaning device consists of a frame 14 having
a form adapted to the internal form of the cabin, where-
by the frame consists of tubes provided with a plurality
of holes 15 distributed over the periphery of the frame.
The holes of the frame are connected with an air-pres-
sure pipe and the frame is guided over a suspension 16.
During the running of the frame through the cabin, the
air under pressure is simultaneously delivered to the
holes 15, and the powder residues are sucked off in the
suction channel 7 through the suction pipe 11. This
first cleaning operation permits the elimination of at
least 95 % of the powder residue from the cabin, this
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residue then being re-utilized.
In many cases, such a cleaning is not sufficient
and it is necessary to submit the cabin to a more in-
tensive cleaning. To this end, different additional de-
vices may be provided. Wet sponges have been found mostadvantageous, these sponges being either sticked to the
frame 14 or provided at a special frame. It is also
possible, after the cleaning operation with the wet
sponges, to take up the rest by means of cloths, leather
or other cleaning rags. Due to the fact that the rails,
respectively their forward motion, may be fully auto-
matically controlled, the cleaning process is also auto-
matically controllable. It is also possible to provide
rotating brushes, either to the same frame or to one
similar to that of the above-described air-pressure de-
vice, which, during the forward motion of the whole
cleaning device, move along the walls of the cabin and
rotate simultaneously. It is also possible to simultan-
eously set the walls of the cabin under vibration such
that the powder residue falls into the channel.
As shown more particularly in Figure 3, the cabin
comprises at each of its two longitudinal sides three
passages 17 as well as a greater opening 21, respective-
ly 22~ The three passages 17 are provided for the powder
spraying device which is arranged on a working platform
while the opening 21, respectively 22 is provided for a
manual preprocessing, respectively an after-processing
by means of a spraying gun. These passages and openings
may easily and rapidly be cleaned manually by the per-
sonnel. In the present example, the front sides of thecabin have the form of two-leaf gates 18 and 19 which
comprise an opening 20. For the treatment, i.e. for the
powder coating, the openings 20 would be sufficient to
permit a passage of the suspended workpieces, while for
the introduction of the cleaning device it is necessary
in this example of execution that the cabin can be fully
opened at least at one front side. According to the
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method of cleaning, it might be practical to open both
front sides to permit an intensive cleaning of the ca-
bin. When the front sides are opened, the gates may be
separately cleaned. During the first cleaning operation
with air under pressure and suction, the gates as well
as the opening 20 and the passages 17 can be tightly
closed, also so that as little powder as possible reach-
es the outside. This also applies to the lateral open-
ings 21 and 22. As shown in Figure 2, the openings 21,
22 and the passages 17 are not disposed strictly oppos-
ite to each other but are arranged rather symmetrically
to each other. If gates are provided only at one side,
the other front side is preferably rounded up as shown
in dot-and-dashes lines by the reference numeral 8. In
this case, it is advantageous to ensure that the clean-
ing device is turnable, in order for the rounded-up
front side to be better cleaned.
As another simplification, the cabin is equipped
only with the passages for the workpieces while both
front sides are rounded up as indicated by the reference
numeral 8. This permits realizing a cabin without any
movable parts such as gates. The cleaning device is cor-
respondingly adapted, i.e., the frame must be turnable
and displaceable in the vertical direction so that the
device can be introduced into the cabin through a work-
piece passage and then turned by 90 to travel through
the cabin.
In Figure 4, a part of an electrostatic powder
coating installation is schematically shown whereby this
installation consists of two separated full circuits. It
is clear, however, that an installation may operate with
one full circuit as well as with more than two circuits.
If one follows the upper circuit in the direction of the
arrow 23, one recognizes the last cleaning stage 24 for
the workpieces from which the latter may be forwarded
either in the first cabin 1 or by means of a switching
element 25 in the cabin 26.
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One recognizes the two lifting posts 28 arranged
on both sides of the cabin to move the spraying guns 29
in horizontal and vertical direction whereby, in accord-
ance with the kind of installation, less or more than
three guns can be provided. The air powder mixture is
sucked off from the collecting pipe 11 by means of a
cyclone 30 through a suction fan 31 with subsequent
filter whereby about 95 % of the powder is separated and
used again. This powder reaches the powder tank 27 and
from there the guns 29 through the pipes 32. In the
great installations, and according to the amount of pow-
der, two or more suction fans with filters may be neces-
sary. One recognizes further the electrical switch cases
33 which produce the high voltage for the spraying guns.
Between the cabins a transportation and parking
device 35 is arranged for the cleaning device 13. The
cleaning device 13 is on a displaceable support 36 which
runs on rails 37 to bring the cleaning device in front
of one or the other cabin. The support 36 is at the same
time formed as a rail on which the suspension of the
cleaning device runs. It would also be possible to lift
the cleaning device onto the transportation rails 12 for
the workpieces and to execute the cleaning over this
system of transportation rails as mentioned in the in-
troduction. In the present case, the cleaning is inde-
pendent from this system of transporting rails and ex-
ecuted over the transportation and parking device 35.
More particularly, this makes it possible to clean a
cabin while spraying is in progress in the other cabin.
The transportation and parking device as well as the
cleaning device are controlled by an electronic such
that the processes take place largely automatically.
The electrostatic powder coating installation com-
prises still other already known elements such as wet
cleaning installations, water, air and heat recuperation
installations as well as burning furnaces, and also fur-
ther cleaning elements such as filters or such.
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Through the use of plastic coated cabin walls on
one hand and of a cleaning device, possibly in several
parts, on the other hand, it is possible to reduce the
conversion time to a fraction of an hour, thus permitt-
ing an economical and rational working of such instal-
lations for small and middle series.
